Lyon County times. [volume] (Silver City, Nev.) 1874-1907, 1887-09-03


caught the cart and tilted it, and the light
ming needles began to play more dreadfully
than ever. The storm was breaking upon
them
"Come, get on, get on" he shouted, "you
will be killed here; the lightning always
strikes along the water and as he said it he
struck one of the wheelers sharply with his
whip.
"Climb over the back of the seat, Mouti
and stand by to help me with the reinsl" sung
out John to the Zulu, who obeyed, getting be-
tween him and jess.
"Now, jess, hang on, and say your prayers,
for it strikes me we shall have need of them.
So, horses, sol"
The horses backed and plunged, but Muller
on the one side and the smooth faced Boer on
the other lashed them W Without mercy, and at
last they went into the river with rush.
The gust had passed now, and for moment
or two there was renewed silence, except for
the whirl Of the water and the snakelike hiss
of the coming rain.
For a few yards, ten or fifteen perhaps, all
went well, and then John suddenly discovered
that they were getting into deep water; the
two leaders were evidently almost off their
legs, and could scarcely stand against the cur
rent of the flooded river.
"DdIlu you! ue SuOuLeu DdCk, tueIe - uo
drift here"
"Go on, go on, it is all right" came Mul-
ler's voice in answer.
John said no more, but, putting out all his
strength, tried to get his horses round. jess
turned herself on the seat to look, and just
then came blaze of lightning which revealed
Muller and his two companions standing dis
mounted on the bank, the muzzles of their
rifles DOintinp straight at the cart
"Oh, God" she screamed, "they are going
to shoot u.s."
Even as the words passed her lips three
tongues of flame flared out from the rifles
mouths and the Zulu, Mouti, sitting by her
side, pitched heavily forward on to his head
into the bottom of the cart, while one OF the
wheelers reared straight up into the air with
a shrek of agony and came down with a
splash into the river.
And then followed scene the horrors Of
which battles my poor pen. Overhead the
storm burst in fury, and flash after flash of
fork, or rather of chain, lightning fell into
the river The thunder, too, began to crack
like the trump of doom; the wind rushed
down, tearing the surface of the water into
foam, and, catching under the tent of the
cart, lifted it clean off the wheels, so that it
began to float. Then the two leaders, mad
with fear by the fury of the storm and the
dying struggles of the off wheeler, plunged
and tore at the traces till they actually rent
themselves loose and vanished between the
darkness overhead and the boiling water be-
meath. Away floated the cart, now touching
the bottom and now riding on the water like
a boat, oscillating this way and that, and
slowly turning round and round. With II
foated the dead horse, dragging down the
other wheeler beneath the water. 1t was aw
full to see his struggles in the glare of the
lightning but at last he sank and choked.
And meanwhile, sounding sharp and clear
across the din and hubbub of the storm, came
the cracking Of the three rifles whenever the
flashes showed the whereabouts of the cart tC
the murderers on the bank. Mouti was lying
still in the bottom on the bed plank, a bullet
between his broad shoulders and another III
his skull; but John felt that his life was yet
whole in him, though something had Missed
past his face and stung it. lnstlnctively he
reached across the cart and drew jess on to
his knee, and covered over her, thinking
dimly that perhaps his body would protect
her from the bullets.
Rip rip! through the wood and canvas;
phut! phut! through the air; but some mer'
ciful power protected them, and though one
cut Johns coat and two passed through the
skirt of Jess dress, not bullet struck them.
And very soon the shooting began to grow
wild, and then that dense vail of rain came
down and wrapped them so close that even the
lightning could not show their whereabouts
to the assassins on the bank.
"Stop shooting" said Frank Muller; 'the
cart has sunk, and there is an end of them.
No human being can have lived through that
fire and the Vaal in flood"
The two Beers ceased firing, and the Uni
corn shook his head softly and remarked to
his companion that the damned English peo-
pie in the water could not be much wetter
than they were on the bank. 1t was curl
Gus thing TO say etsuch a moment, but prob
ably the spirit that animated the remark was
not SO much callousness as that which ami
mated Cromwell, who Tipped the ink in his
neighbours face when he signed the death
warrant of his king.
Muller was also thinking of the warrant
which he had forged. He must get it back
somehow, even if
Let us take shelter under the bank there.
There is fiat place, about fifty yards up,
where the bank lies over. This rain is
drowning US. We can't upsaddle till it
clears. l must have nip of brandy, too.
Almighty l can see that girls face now
the lightning shone on it just as shot. Well
she will be in heaven now, poor thing, il
English people ever go to heaven"
1t was the Unicorn who spoke, and the
Vilderbeeste made no reply, but advanced
with him to where the horses stood. They
took the patient brutes that were waiting fol
their masters, their heads well down and the
water streaming from them, and led then
along with them. Frank Muller stood by hi.
own horse thinking, and watched then
vanish into the gloom. How was lie to sc
that warrant back without dyeing his hand.
even redder than they were9
As he thought, an answer came. For a
that moment, accompanied by fearfu
thunderclap, there shot from the storm over
head which had now nearly passed away
one of those awful flashes that sometimes en-.
all African tempest. 1t lit up the who,
scene round as light as day, and right in tl,
white heart of it Muller saw his two com
panions in crime and their horses as the grea
king saw the meA in the furnace. They wei,
about forty PAGES from him, on the crest o
the bank. He saw them, one moment erect